Amazon expects Hachette dispute to drag on

Updated 5:29 pm, Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Amazon says a dispute between it and publisher Hachette that has made it more difficult to buy Hachette books on the site will probably not be resolved soon.

It is even saying that customers should go to its competitors if they need a book published by the major New York publishing house quickly.

The e-commerce giant said late Tuesday it has been ordering less stock from Hachette and stopped letting customers pre-order books by Hachette authors, including J.K. Rowling, James Patterson and Michael Connelly. Hachette said the changes affect about 5,000 titles. The changes had been widely reported, but Amazon had not commented on them previously.

"If you order 1,000 items from Amazon, 989 will be unaffected by this interruption," Amazon said. "If you do need one of the affected titles quickly, we regret the inconvenience and encourage you to purchase a new or used version from one of our third-party sellers or from one of our competitors."

Hachette said Friday and then again on Wednesday that it would "spare no effort" to resume normal business operations with Amazon.

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But Amazon said Tuesday it is "not optimistic" that the companies will reach an agreement soon.

"Hachette has operated in good faith and we admire the company and its executives," Amazon said. "Nevertheless, the two companies have so far failed to find a solution."

Amazon and Hachette are reportedly at odds over terms for e-book prices, at a time when Amazon is in a position of strength and vulnerability. The Seattle company is the most powerful force in the book market, believed to have a share of more than 60 percent of e-book sales and at least a third of book sales overall. Rivals have struggled to compete with Amazon's discounts and customer service.

But recent earnings reports have been disappointing and Amazon's stock price, which rose for years despite narrow profits, has dropped sharply in 2014.

Numerous Hachette authors have criticized Amazon in recent weeks, including Sherman Alexie and Patterson, who on his Facebook page noted that the purchase of books written by him, Malcolm Gladwell, Nicholas Sparks and others had been made more difficult.

Amazon said it has offered to fund 50 percent of an author pool allocated by Hachette to lessen the impact the move has on author royalties if Hachette funds the other half.

But Hachette said Wednesday that it will wait until the companies agree on overall terms before it talks to Amazon about compensating authors for the damage the dispute has caused. Hachette, a subsidiary of French media company Lagardere, said there is more at stake than just royalties.

"In addition to royalties, (authors) are concerned with audience, career, culture, education, art, entertainment and connection," Hachette said. "By preventing its customers from connecting with these authors' books, Amazon indicates that it considers books to be like any other consumer good. They are not."

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